This pairing is a fine example of the contrasts between a classic Central America cup: Guatemala Antigua Finca Cabrejo and a classic Africa cup: Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe Dumerso Cooperative. The main difference will be in the types of acidity present in each cup. The Antigua should display a well-defined, bright malic acidity coupled with blackberry and toasted nut, while the Yirg will have more ripe and slightly winey fruit with a big tangy finish. We'll keep both of these coffees in the City+ range to highlight these regional differences.

We are happy to announce our participation in the Eat Real Festival this Sunday right here in our home city of Oakland, CA. Eat Real is a celebration of all kinds of foods ranging from gourmet cuisine to food trucks.

Why do Central American coffees appeal to North American taste buds so much? Is it because they are clean and sweet? Or are we just accustomed to central American coffees because it is the coffee origin closest to us? Existential questions probably best pondered over a cup of Central American coffee. Here we will roast the Costa Rica Bajo Canet de Tarrazu, and the Panama Boquete Garrido Estate Lot 26-92. Both are new additions and will be reviewed and added to the site soon so you can read up on them. Both are traditional washed Central American coffees.

Both these lots were roasted to City+ level, but to be exact, the El Salvador is just a tad darker. The difference (as we measure bean temperature on the Probat L-12) is a 425 fahrenheit finish temperature on the Panama and 430 on the El Salvador. It doesn't sound like much, but it makes a small difference in the cup. With the Panama my goal is to preserve the crisp brightness in the cup, which after cupping it seems to have more red apple notes than other roasts I have done of the Carmen. With the El Salvador, I was looking for a little more chocolate roast taste in the cup.

This week’s pairing is a good expression of the range of flavors in Central American coffees. On one hand we roasted Honduras Santa Barbara Smallholders to a light City+ level to highlight amazing tropical fruit notes and light body. This is a special pooled lot from several small farms and represents quite an exotic profile for a washed Honduran coffee. At the other end of the spectrum is the classic, “crowd-pleaser” Guatemala Finca Candelaria roasted to a more balanced Full City level. I was really trying to draw a distinction between these two coffees with the different roast levels and

So I made a send-up coffee travel video that was supposed to parody the potential silliness of a coffee travel video, and the responses to it range a wide gamut. I am sure many people get a small chuckle from something in it and move on. A few think it is hilarious, others don't realize it's an attempt at humor, and a handful are a bit offended. Because some comments were a little "out there", a couple downright mean, I actually turned on "moderate comments" for the first time ever, and I culled a few.

This week we are looking at the way roast level affects the cup. We’ve roasted a great new Ethiopia arrival in two very different ways. The first batch was roasted to City+ and employed a quicker profile with final thermaprobe temperature of 430 degrees and roast time of 13 minutes. The resultant cup has a light body, sweet honey and tea-like notes. The second batch was roasted to Full City and employed a longer profile with the same final thermaprobe temperature of 430 degrees but a roast time of 15 minutes. This extra two minutes in the roaster adds more depth to the body along with ca